Rafael Nadal

I said it yesterday that Rafa wasn't playing particularly well yesterday. It was Chardy who was giving most of his points away. Still, Nadal did pretty good upon return. Made the final and lost in a well contested match. A very big thumbs up to Zeba for not folding in the 2nd set. I guess he felt very confident even after losing the very tight first set.

Thought for a moment I'd strayed onto a Murray match thread here! LOL Thanks for the comments though guys because I missed it. Some twerp told me Nadal had won the 2nd set as well as the first so I thought that was it. Moral of the story - always check things out yourself. There are plenty of highlights on YouTube but I hope somebody posts the whole match.

I wonder though how this will affect Nadal going into Brazil. If nothing else at least his knee will have been well tested tonight.

I think Nadal is obviously not yet at his peek. But it shows other players that he can be beaten. Zeballas played very well and others have said he has a great backhand he played to his potential. Rafa will get back to his best but it will take time. In the meantime other player should note that he can be beaten. Zeballas played very well and was not overawed by Rafa's reputation. It just shows Rafa can be beaten if they go out and play to their full potential.

What a great match that turned out to be last night. I admit I wasn't expecting too much. I wasn't familiar with Zeballos, so I assumed he would be intimidated by the mere sight of Nadal over the net and would more or less hand the match over whilst waving the white flag. How wrong could I be!

I loved Zeballos's game. I can't remember who said it, but I'm not the biggest fan of clay tennis either, although any time Andy plays well on it is fun to watch, and I enjoyed seeing Seppi do well in Rome last year, and I enjoyed the RG final last year. However, last night I got completely hooked. Zeballos had some lovely Murrayesque touch on the ball, and was really going for it. Also, he looked like he was loving every second of it, and why not? I was very, very impressed with him.

As for Nadal, I think it's way too early to write him off, but I don't think you can safely predict that he will come back as he was either. In other words, I don't think you can take much out of this. In terms of his game, he looked a step slow out there to me, and I didn't think he was getting down to some of his shots as he might have done, although that is probably no surprise given that he was out for so long. I think the same applies in terms of having nothing to dig deep with mentally, when he had chances. That takes time to get back though, surely.

The thing I do think will be interesting to see with Rafa is how much confidence he will have going forwards. If he accepts that he is likely to have a tough time for a bit, I think he will be fine. However, I've always thought Rafa was the most mentally fragile of the top four. I know, I know, before anyone starts frothing and mentioning Andy. I just feel that Rafa lacks a certain amount of self confidence and self belief when things get tough. Look at how he struggled when Djokovic got all those wins against him for example. I really do think it hurt his confidence, and certainly his self belief. I just wonder how things will go if Rafa does begin to really struggle, not so much against the low ranked players, but those in the top ten and above.

I don't think Rafa is weaker than Andy mentally, but I think he does rely more on confidence.

I dont know how anyone can suggest Rafa is mentally weaker than Andy. Rafa has won what? around 11 Slams?....Andy has won 1. Rafa also has a 12-5 h2h against Andy. Im a huge Andy fan...but to suggest that he is mentally stronger than Rafa is idiotic.

I don't think Rafa is weaker than Andy mentally, but I think he does rely more on confidence.

That's what I mean. I wasn't suggesting that Rafa is mentally weaker, but I do think he is the most fragile in terms of his self belief and self confidence. I mean, look at the results he has had over Federer, and yet he still considers Federer better than him, or he did when he was last asked. Some would say that is just respect, but I don't know. To my mind it is lack of belief in his own ability, or total bluff, and I don't think Rafa is good at bluff. I think Rafa is someone who needs wins to build his belief in himself. I don't think he is so good at believing when the results just aren't there.

What I think Rafa has done over the years is to achieve in spite of being insecure. I'd bet really good money that no one would be more surprised than Rafa that he has won 11 slams.

As far as Andy is concerned in terms of confidence, I really do think he started out as a very confident player, but I think those major final losses chipped away at that to a point. What I think he has done, maybe with help from Lendl, is rediscover that confidence again.